California’s governor claims to be a Catholic “man of faith.” But he has a viciously anti-Christian agenda for America.
Part 4. Aggressively Imposing the LGBTQ Agenda
After abortion, radical gender ideology is widely understood by faithful Catholics to be the next most important front in our cultural struggle.
From his own vantage point on the opposite side of the culture war, Gavin Newsom seems to agree. Along with abortion tourism, his outreach to other states now includes making California a destination for the horrific medical malpractice of transgender procedures on children.
So-called “gender-affirming care” causes lifelong harm to children and vulnerable adults, by means ranging from psychological conditioning to puberty blocking drugs and mutilating surgery.
Based on the fundamental lie that so-called “gender identity” exists apart from a person’s bodily sex, this range of maltreatments should instead be called biology-denying abuse.
Once confined to fringe subcultures and far-left academia, transgender ideology overtook American society at an astonishing rate during the 2010s – following on the heels of earlier societal revolutions involving identity and biology.
In particular, the cultural and political explosion of transgenderism coincided with the Supreme Court’s 2015 invention of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage – the issue on which Gavin Newsom had once staked his political career and become famous.
It is sadly logical that the onetime crusader against authentic marriage is now in the fight for transgender ideology.
As with abortion, the Democratic Party’s shift on matters of sexuality and gender is striking. In the 1990s, President Clinton oversaw the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on homosexuality, and signed the Defense of Marriage Act preemptively banning federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
In later years, however, Democratic “progressives” like Gavin Newsom became ascendant and then dominant. Many lifestyles and sexual behaviors were seen as innate identities – deserving legal protection and privileges, like those granted to race or biological sex in civil rights law.
Once this premise was accepted in regard to homosexuality, there was no logical argument against applying it to those claiming some form of “gender identity.”
It took some time for the Democratic Party to regard homosexuality and gay marriage as “human rights.” But once this happened – through the prodding of Newsom and others – transgenderism was quickly embraced on the same terms by politicians, while also becoming a cultural craze.
Inevitably, the advance of LGBTQ ideology threatens religious liberty and authentic freedom of conscience in society. These ideologues demand forms of approval and practical compliance that faithful Christians, and other critics of gender nonsense, cannot give them.
In this clash of orthodoxies, Gavin Newsom aggressively sides with the LGBTQ movement.
In October 2022, he signed a bill making California the nation’s first “sanctuary state” for parents from other jurisdictions seeking to give their children hormone treatment, puberty-blocking drugs, and more. He advocated passionately for trans ideology in his signing statement:
“In California we believe in equality and acceptance. We believe that no one should be prosecuted or persecuted for getting the care they need – including gender-affirming care.”
In yet another attempt to steal and warp a conservative principle, the governor framed his support for child sex-change procedures as “a stand for parental choice.” Supporters of real parental rights should not be fooled.
In the literal sense, any action of a parent toward a child – even a terrible and tragic decision – could be described as a “parental choice.” Clearly, some “parental choices” should be illegal.
Supporters and critics of transgenderism disagree about whether this is a legitimate matter of parental choice, or a form of pseudo-medical abuse that should not be on society’s menu of choices.
In this case, as with pro-abortion rhetoric, the simplistic language of “choice” is used to bypass the central moral issue – as well as the basic biological facts.
In September 2023, Newsom doubled down on this strategy of imposing radical ideology and calling it “freedom.” When he instituted new penalties on public school districts that fail to promote homosexuality and transgenderism to children, he framed this as a matter of “families” having “the freedom to decide what’s right for them.”
This was signed alongside nine new laws touted by the governor’s office as “Supporting LGBTQ+ Californians.” Among the others were measures to implement “LGBTQ+ cultural competency training by public school teachers and staff” and “establish an advisory task force to identify LGBTQ+ pupil needs statewide and assist in implementing supportive initiatives.”
On this occasion, Newsom’s own comments in the official press release were relatively mild – stressing the “safer, more inclusive spaces” that would be created. Here the governor seemed to be playing the “good cop.”
The “bad cop,” however, showed up at the end of the governor’s official press release. The announcement from Newsom’s office concluded with comments from Equality California’s executive director Tony Hoang, who declared that the “hate-filled attacks” of “far-right extremists” would “not be tolerated” in California.
Hoang seemed to be putting the public on notice, with the message that those who oppose the radical LGBTQ agenda are not welcome in society. Perversion and pornography will be celebrated, while faithful Christians – and other voices of reason – will be hounded out.
Newsom himself had already begun making this clear in the summer of 2023 – when he announced a $1.5 million fine and threatened legal action against a school district whose board objected to LGBTQ content in social studies materials.
In that case, it was Newsom who accused the school board majority of “hate” that “doesn’t belong in our classrooms,” adding there would be “a civil rights investigation to answer for.”
In the wake of that incident, Newsom announced in August 2023 that the state would make a $630,000 grant to Equality California for work involving “hate incidents and hate crimes.”
This is notable both because of the ever-expanding definition of “hate,” and because Equality California is a prominent, well-funded opponent of authentic parental rights – such as parents’ right to know if their child adopts a different “gender identity” within the public school system.
From 2023 to 2025, California Attorney General Rob Bonta – a Newsom appointee – fought a court battle against parents’ right to know about the “social transitioning” of their children in the Chino Valley Unified School District.
Although the final outcome of this case was favorable to the district in some respects, Newsom’s chosen attorney general won on the central issue. In 2024, Bonta obtained a court ruling that caused the schools to back down and make a new policy allowing secret gender transitions.
The record is clear: no matter how Governor Newsom now wishes to present himself – and no matter what he may now say about biological men in women’s sports – it is absurd to consider him as any kind of moderate on matters of sexuality and gender.
Even if Newsom is sincere on the specific issue of women’s sports, this is at best a mere inconsistency from a man committed to gay and trans ideology. He remains a loud, proud, and unrepentant supporter of a movement that abuses and mutilates children.
Three weeks after he criticized male participation in women’s sports in his talk with Charlie Kirk, Newsom was again showing his true colors – by flying the blue-and-pink transgender flag from the California state capitol to celebrate “Trans Day of Visibility.”
The governor publicized this display in a March 31 post on X, declaring that California would “continue to fight” for trans ideology.
If California is indeed “America’s Coming Attraction,” as Newsom claims, believers in Biblical truth – and biological reality – should be gravely concerned.
Read Part 5 here.
About the Author: Benjamin Mann is a Byzantine Catholic and has written for several publications including Catholic News Agency, Catholic Exchange, and Real Clear Religion.
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